Video Essentials

Tablets Are Taking Over: Here’s What You Need to Know

Online viewers are increasing watching video on tablet devices and — for longer form content especially — turning away from desktop and notebook viewing. If your business involves serving video, you need to know how to reach tablet owners.

Online measurement company comScore recently released a report on tablet viewing that contained the following:

1 out of every 4 smartphone owners used a tablet in the three-month 2012 period studied by the comScore report. Tablets are no longer a niche audience.

Tablet owners were nearly three times more likely to watch video on their mobile device than smartphone owners. Tablets are simply more useful for video.

comScore found that smartphone owners were far more likely to own a tablet device than feature phone owners. The report also uncovered these facts about tablet owners:

Tablet owners more likely to be female (just slightly)

Tablet owners are older than smartphone owners, on average. They’re 28 percent more likely to be 65 and older, and 27 percent less likely to be age 18 to 24.

Tablet owners are more likely to be high income. Nearly 3 in 5 tablet owners live in households with incomes of $75,000 or more.

So that’s the demographics. But what about results? comScore found that tablet owners were nearly three times as likely to watch online video as smartphone owners. Nearly half of tablet owners watch video or TV content on their device, compared to 20 percent of smartphone owners.

18.9 percent of tablet owners view video at least once a week on their device

9.5 percent of tablet owners watch video every day on their device

Of those watching video at least monthly on their tablet, over a quarter of them have paid to watch video on their device. The tablet audience represents a real moneymaker for companies that own and stream premium content.

All that viewing can easily lead to sales. In a previous report (from August, 2010), comScore found that retail site visitors who view videos two minutes or longer are 64 percent more likely to make a purchase on that site than other visitors. If you’re not thinking about mobile viewers yet, consider where people will view your site, how it will look on their device, and how you can be sure you’re reaching tablet viewers with video.